By Lewis S. Teh
Accountability Lab Liberia has launched its 2023 hunt for Liberia’s Integrity Icon with a much more focus on identifying individuals who are involved in selfless sacrifices in public sector by demonstrating integrity and accountability in their various places of work.
Integrity Icon campaign is a national movement to celebrate and encourage honest public servants across the country, with a focus on naming and ‘faming’ honest public servants as opposed to the conventional style of naming and shaming wrongdoers.
Launched in Monrovia on Wednesday, May 17, 2023, at Icampus on Carey Street in central Monrovia, the program has worked to showcase honest public servants in a country that perennially ranks at the bottom of corruption indices.
It was launched in Liberia in 2015 and has so far honored over 40 civil servants and public officials, for being honest in their duties and helping to transform society, according to Accountability Lab-Liberia Country Director, Mr. Lawrence Yealue.
The nomination campaign will officially give citizens and the general public an opportunity to submit nominations for outstanding public servants in various governmental sectors that demonstrate honesty and integrity under difficult circumstances.
Speaking to reporters at the official launch, country director Yealue said his team will verify all submissions and narrow to a specific number, as part of the project. A panel of three judges will then narrow the individuals nominated to the top five finalists, he added.
He disclosed that the annual campaign is meant to give young people hope and to build their confidence regarding perception about corruption in the country.
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“So let’s just say the relevance of this process is to restore hope and dignity and to build the confidence of our young people that, despite many corruption instances that are ongoing, there are still some good people in our society”, he assured.
Yealue narrated that Accountability Lab Liberia launched the 9th edition of one of its flagship programs in search of honest public servants in Liberia.
“This campaign seeks to identify the gems and exemplary public service workers that uphold the codes and values of service with integrity.”
According to him, the lab intends to celebrate those individuals whoever and where ever they are, as the country’s shiny knights.
“We want to encourage the public and we’ll meaning Liberians to look within the public sector and their communities to nominate persons with integrity, seeking a better Liberia through their demonstrated work.”
Yealue noted that over the past eight years, the lab has discovered and celebrated 40 public servants with integrity from different sectors within government, naming health, security, Finance, Revenue Collection, Education, Public Procurement, Human Resources, and the Media.
He added that some of those individuals came from Montserrado, Bomi, Bong, Margibi, Nimba, Lofa, Maryland, Grand Bassa, Grand Kru, Grand Cape Mount and Gbarpolu counties.
“We at Accountability Lab Liberia are thrilled to promote integrity and honesty in government through this integrity Icon campaign”, he said and noted that it is prudent as a citizen centric organization to create positive conversation around issues that will enable the overall development of the country. Editing by Jonathan Browne
